What About Irving J. Polack? What About Louis Stern? How American Circus History is Not Written and Why ...

My little litmus test, whenever I pick up a new book about circus, is to look in the index for the names of Irving J. Polack or Louis Stern. Almost always, they are missing. Almost always, once again ignored by those press agents or fans or operatives (as mostly they are) who write these books that are rarely questioned by the people who review them. Does it even matter, many will ask, yawning off. It’s only the circus. Well, if as they say the victors in war get to write their own history, what can we expect under tents of popular amusement so far removed from urgent matters of life and death — of stock market crashes and presidential elections? Not much. To me it matters, and so, buckle down and get ready for a little shock therapy over sawdust....

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New Circus Book's High-Def Illustrations a Tour-de-Force

Book Review:The Circus: 1870-1950Noel Daniel, editorDominique Jando, Linda Granfield, and Fred Dahlinger,Jr., contributing writers.It is so huge and handsome and heavy, so perfectly put together, it will immediately impress you with its sheer grandeur. You will be swept away by the scope and brilliance of its reproductions, many of them rare discoveries that bring back to life the greatness of — yes, mostly Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus under the big top. By that measure alone, there is no other book on the planet I can think of that comes close to this one.And after a while, you may begin to tire of the arduous journey, as the turning of pages becomes more of an effort and you wonder if you have the will and the muscle to make it on through to the end. You might wonder if...

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Friday Night L’Amyxery: Atlanta Hosts Four Major Circuses This Weekend ...Who Said That Big Tops Are Dying? ...

If you've got the money and the time, get thee to Atlanta NOW. Today thru Sunday, arguably the best four circus companies that tour the states are ALL in town. I’m talking Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza, highly recommended; Big Apple's Play On! , Ringling’s Over the Top and UniverSoul's Jabulani. In what other city on the planet can one see such an abundance of top-drawer sawdust talent in the space of a few days? I’m envious, Atlanta! Thank you, Don Covington, for linking the story my way ...Ringling’s latest opus, Zing, Zang Zoom, looks visually dazzling on a You Tube teaser; check it out over at Sawdust Nights, whose Logan Jacot, missing in action, is back in action and posting aplenty. He hosts solid news items and fabulous videos ... Where oh Where are there reviews for Zing? I’ve searched...

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Reviving Broadway: Pal Joey Flops; South Pacific Sails On: Will the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization Ever Learn?

The triumphant revival of South Pacific, which closely follows the original 1949 script, is nearing the end of its hugely successful first year at Lincoln Center.Meanwhile, in the land of make-believe makeovers, the recent revival of yet another rewritten Pal Joey stumbles prematurely towards an early closing at Studio 54. It will have lasted less than three months.The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, it appears, refuses ever to learn from its many failed attempts to rewrite the shows that charmed the critics and public when they first opened --- to rewrite them into more sophisticated treatments aimed at pandering to modern audiences.The late Richard Rodgers once wrote, “We’ve found from experience, some of it painful, that the best way...

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Under Big Top Blogs, Beware the Minefields of Hidden Agendas, Veiled Work Offers, Get-Even Comments, Hype and Hope and Hypocrisy ...

Post Post Update, Sunday, 12:30 PM: I encourage you to read the comments, very diversified and offering a number of takes on the concession pitching issue you may find of great value. And thank you, Steven, for your nice message to me on your blog.It's a swampland of half-truths and spin, of misinformation and veiled get-even messages out there when you try navigating your way through circus blogs. What is so interesting is that most of them are hosted by inside professionals, and they no doubt harbor all sorts of hidden agendas. Sometimes I feel like an innocent in the middle of it all, watching comments fly this way and that and wondering who has a grudge to bear or a friend to puff. Spurned? Fired? Told your act is over the hill?But, how else to get information. The White Tops? Circus Report?...

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Kelly-Miller Bolts to Texas for Early Opening ... John Ringling North II on the Lot Supervising Rehearsals ... Judkins Promoting Lone Star Dates ...

In a dramatic departure from its ordinary Hugo, Oklahoma March opening, Kelly-Miler Circus jumped 700 miles this week into Brownsville, Texas, where its “official” 2009 tour begins tomorrow, Thursday, for a four-day, 10 show frame. Move was made partly to avoid expense-draining sits in Hugo and add early revenue into the coffers. Last season, total fuel bills were "up over" $100,000.00 from the previous tour, and the profit margin is slim, according to show manager James Royal in an e-mail to Showbiz David. Circus owner John Ringling North II okayed a plan by Jim Judkins to book the early Texas dates which Judkins' shuttered Circus Chimera used to play. Judkins "knows the ‘valley’ well and we decided to have a joint venture there,” says Royal. “As you know, while in winter quarters it is all...

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New Musical in L.A.: Minsky's -- Can Song-and-Dance-Terrific Tuner Dazzle Its Way Out of a Lame Book?

New Musical ReviewMinsky’s, at the Ahmanson TheatreMedia Update, 2/9. The show opened to generally tepid reviews -- so far. Surprisingly, The New York Times sent Charles Isherwood out to review the opening; he filed a kindly skeptical notice for its New York prospects. A dismissive review in the Los Angeles Times borders on a pan. A few blog sites are expressing keen enthusiasm.LOS ANGELES, January 22 – Watching the powerhouse production numbers in this promising new tuner that lift it to Broadway heights, is much like watching an old movie musical whose songs and dances soar as high as its tediously silly dialogue scenes sink, leaving you waiting for the real stuff to resume. During the waits, to be sure, there is a fair amount of miscellaneous...

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Irvin Felds’s Epic Circus World & Ego Revisited

Had it come to pass as he gloriously envisioned, Irvin Feld’s Florida circus theme park would have crowned the man as one of the greatest American showman who ever lived.Instead, Feld’s debatable legacy will depend on the kindness of future historians, writers and thinkers objectively removed from his manipulative powers. Of course, in the affirmative, it can be readily advanced that Feld's extravagant ballyhoos and historically imaginative press agentry gave him and his circus the aura — or should I say the illusion -- of greatness, at least to those for whom circus art is a secondary pleasure. I have always felt that, far more interesting than the circus the Felds produce, are the Felds themselves. They are so utterly, shamelessly ruthless....

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Touring Death Trails for Fifty Years and Counting: They Call it the Circus

“Not one circus will be left in ten years,” predicted a top-drawer press agent not long after parting company with the Ringling-Barnum show. He was famed Roland Butler, a victim of drastic Ringling rethinking in a new age when the lure of TV advertising favored the ever-experimentally minded John Ringling North (above). ... And that was over fifty years ago (okay, my age can not be denied). Butler’s comments to a friend were mentioned to me, then a kid, in a letter from circus fancier and collectibles dealer Harry (Doc) Chapman, who at the age of 10 could have seen Ringling under canvas in 1893 ... Wandering back today through boyhood correspondence, how favored I was by a steady stream of historically rich letters from Mr. Chapman, who addressed...

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Sunday Morning Scramble: Ringling's Latest, Not the Greatest? The Pope Pets a Tiger; Adult Aussie Midways & Bello's Accidental Hairstack ...

Down there in Florida, the Felds have failed so far to impress one fan, who got little zing, zang or zoom from a show of the same name. He's Jack Hunter, who rues that the thrill is gone. Says Jack, exclusive to Showbiz David, “It appears to be a long season ahead. I’m still trying to figure out if what I saw was a magic show or illusion, rock show, a little bit of Broadway or some portion of that thing that comes out of Canada” Jack, what you saw was the Feld smorgasbord (likely inspired by CDS’s Believe), maybe this time it’s just a little too smorgy for your taste.Now, in all fairness to the Felds at this premature point, I glanced in cyberspace for some reviews; found none. And I’m still intrigued by what the Felds, in their best creative...

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